correct insf syntax needed

[Marc Ahrendt]

i have allowed several more users onto my 11.00 L2000 server recently and right now they are having problems starting "xterm"s

there are no errors in dmesg or in syslog.log

but i think i see the problem ...below run as root from the server:

kmtune -q npty | grep npty
npty 512
kmtune -q nstrpty | grep nstrpty
nstrpty 512
cd /dev/pty; ls | wc -w
60
cd /dev/ptym; ls | grep pty | wc -w
60

basically i forgot to run insf when i tweaked the kernel years ago on this server. so my question is what should be the syntax of insf to impact only device files used by xterm?

i do not want to run "insf -e" ...i want to be very specific about what i want insf to do. i just am wondering if i only need to run the following
insf -v -e -d pty -n 512
or do i also need to run
insf -v -e -d ptm -n 512
again i am only concerned about "xterm" not telnet, rlogin, etc... at this point in time

thx, marc

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Marc,

insf is not going to cut the mustard here.
You'll need to increase some kernel parameters - specifically.

npty
nstrpty
nstrtel

This will require a reboot.
Increase them all at the same time & it's recommended that you keep them all the same value. for xterms the key one is nstrpty because they are all streams based connections - so are telnet connections for that matter.

Rgds,
Jeff

[RAC_1]

insf -d pty -s 512 -ev
insf -d ptm -s 512 -ev
insf -d telm ss 512 -ev
insf -d tels -s 512 -ev

[Marc Ahrendt]

jeff, the kernel is OK since the parameters of concern are set to 512 as shown in my original post ...but the devices files have a count of 60 (which is the main problem)

[Marc Ahrendt]

RAC, are you sure those are the right commands?

insf -d pty -s 512 -ev
(should that be a "-n" not "-s")
insf -d ptm -s 512 -ev
(should that be a "-n" not "-s")
insf -d telm ss 512 -ev
(i thought this was only needed for telnet not xterm)
insf -d tels -s 512 -ev
(i thought this was only needed for telnet not xterm)

[Ermin Borovac · Accepted solution]

Correct commands are

# insf -d ptym -n -e -v
# insf -d ptys -n -e -v

First command creates master devices:

/dev/ptym/clone
/dev/ptym/pty

Second command creates slave devices

/dev/pty/tty

The last two commands can be replaced by a single command

# insf -d pty -n -e -v

These devices are used by xterm and hpterm.

[Marc Ahrendt]

thx ermin, that was what i was trying to confirm